I have an idea about how to stop unruly fans from becoming a problem. Punish the teams of the fans. How do you do this? Easily.
I was watching a soccer game between two European powerhouses Roma and AC Milan yesterday. I noticed that the stadium was empty. Apparently, a fan had thrown something at a ref and had hit him in an earlier game played at AC Milan. The response from the higher ups was to require the game to be played but the doors locked and no fans allowed to watch.
Yes, it was weird watching a game in an empty stadium, but I noticed there were no fans throwing beer, yelling insults, or cursing refs. It was silent except for the teams on the field. I also noticed that it was an exceptionally clean game. There were no fans to incite bad behavior for the players. The Club took a hit as well. They lost all the gate receipts, concessions, and all the other gear normally bought at games. You can be sure that AC Milan will feel this economic hit and make double sure the fans are more orderly.
The same should happen here. It wasn't the first time that a fan threw things at Ron Artest while he was in Detroit. The Pistons just did nothing about it. If, say, this Friday's Piston home game against the Atlanta Hawks was played in front of an empty house, that would wake up the management of the Pistons to get their fans under control. It would also be an eye opener for the rest of the league, as well as sports teams around the country in general.
Imagine after the chair throwing incident in Oakland during the Rangers/Athletics game that the next Oakland game was played sans fans. Do you think there would be more fan trouble ever again in Oakland?
I don't.
It would also let the players know that they aren't the only ones being punished for less than admirable behavior, thus giving them less of an argument or excuse to have to go into the stands to defend themselves.
Will teams go for it? Probably not, but if a commissioner has any cojones he would enforce this immediately. If he did, he would never have problems with unruly fans ever again.
The individual teams would see to that.
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